In what is dubbed as a ‘first-of-its-kind surgery’, the US surgeons have performed a successful transplant of a ‘porcine’ heart into an adult human with end-stage heart disease.
The 57-year-old Maryland resident with terminal heart disease received a successful transplant of a genetically-modified pig heart and is said to be still doing well three days later.
“It was the only currently available option for the patient,” the University of Maryland Medicine said on Monday (January 10, 2022) after performing the historic surgery.
“This organ transplant demonstrated for the first time that a genetically-modified animal heart can function like a human heart without immediate rejection by the body,” the University said in a statement.
The “historic” procedure took place Friday, the University of Maryland Medical School said in a statement on Monday. While the patient’s prognosis is far from certain, it represents a major milestone for animal to human transplantation.
The patient, David Bennett, had been deemed ineligible for human transplant — a decision that is often taken when the recipient has very poor underlying health.
He is now recovering and being carefully monitored to determine how the new organ performs.
“It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” the Maryland resident said a day before the surgery.
Muhammad Mohiuddin, who co-founded the university’s cardiac xenotransplantation program, added the surgery was the culmination of years or research, involving pig-to-baboon transplants, with survival times that exceeded nine months.
“The successful procedure provided valuable information to help the medical community improve this potentially life-saving method in future patients,” he said.
